These "Thin Partitions" ─ Bridging the Growing Divide Between Cultural Anthropology and Archaeology

These “Thin Partitions” explores the intellectual and methodological differences that separate two of the four subdisciplines within the field of anthropology: archaeology and cultural anthropology. Contributors examine the theoretical underpinnings of this separation and explore what can be gained by joining them, both in university departments and in field research.

In case studies highlighting the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration, contributors argue that anthropologists and archaeologists are simply not “speaking the same language” and that the division between fields undermines the field of anthropology as a whole. Scholars must bridge this gap and find ways to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration to promote the health of the anthropological discipline. By sharing data, methods, and ideas, archaeology and cultural anthropology can not only engage in more productive debates but also make research accessible to those outside academia.

These “Thin Partitions” gets to the heart of a well-known problem in the field of anthropology and contributes to the ongoing debate by providing concrete examples of how interdisciplinary collaboration can enhance the outcomes of anthropological research.

Contributors: Fredrik Fahlander, Lilia Fernández Souza, Kent Fowler, Donna Goldstein, Joseph R. Hellweg, Derek Johnson, Ashley Kistler, Vincent M. LaMotta, John Monaghan, William A. Parkinson, Paul Shankman, David Small

Joshua D. Englehardt is profesor-investigador at the Centro de Estudios Arqueologicos of El Colegio de Michoacan, a CONACYT Level I National Investigator, and codirector of the?Mesoamerican Corpus of Formative Period Art and Writing. He specializes in Mesoamerican archaeology and epigraphy, with a research focus on the development of Mesoamerican writing systems in the Formative period and the correlation of emerging scripts with diachronic changes in material culture. He is also the editor of Agency in Ancient Writing.
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Ivy A. Rieger?is professor-investigator of cultural anthropology at the Universidad Autonomade San Luis Potosi and received her doctorate from the University of Colorado Boulder. She primarily specializes in theoretical questions related to practice, belonging, and performance among the Mixtec of Oaxaca, Mexico, where she conducts ethnographic research focusing on fiestas, ritual, memory, and identity among this indigenous group.